Thought on the creative process and everything that pertains to it. That means life in general

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Alan Watts on Faith

Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

Which speaks to more than than just faith in God, it also speaks to faith in ourselves and our abilities. Last night a friend asked me to make her a model slug, a bizarre request on the surface and not one where the reasons need going into. Suffice to say it was important and I agreed to do it. She had faith in me that I could come up with the goods and that gave me faith in myself. This morning I gave her the slug and she did what she had to do with it. What usually holds me back in creative situations is clinging to the belief thatI am a particular type of creative person and strangling my abilities. Instead I need faith that I can do what I want to do and just do it. There is an intuitive, zenlike quality to creativity, a moment of touching god, where things work out the way they should,problems come from over thinking what is essentially an emotional response. I think that is true of all creativity, be it art or writing or cartooning.